Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 1.djvu/505

The Temple under the New Empire. 409 the sanctuary there is a stone bench upon which three statues were seated. The two temples of Ipsamboul are so well known and have been so often illustrated and described, that they need not detain us long. The chief thing to be noticed here is that they are without any external and constructed part, and that from their Ai ' -j;!fct,.i?^i.Ky^||^j|j|j|i^ A '0 ^ 10 15 20 — Fig. 239. — Gherf-Hossein, longitudinal section ; from Prisse. position, high above the river and close to it, it was impossible that they could have any dromos ; and yet between the doorway of the speos and the river bank there were steps which are now either worn away by the action of the floods or hidden by the ddbris from the cliffs. The facades of these temples were, however, as richly decorated and as monumental in their way as those of the most sumptuous buildings in Thebes. ElG. 240. — Plan of the hemispeos of Derri ; from Horeau. Fig. 241. — Longitudinal section, Derri; from Horeau. The prototype of these facades is the Theban pylon. They have the same trapeziform surfaces covered with figures and inscriptions, circumscribed by a moulding and crowned by a cornice in bold relief; they arc inclined from the perpendicular, and they afford a background to the statues of the king VOL. I.